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The relationship among caregiving characteristics, caregiver strain, and health-related quality of life: evidence from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin

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Abstract

Purpose

In order to better understand how family caregiving may contribute to poor health outcomes, this study sought to determine (1) if and to what extent caregiving characteristics were associated with caregiver strain and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and (2) whether caregiver strain mediated this association.

Methods

Data were from the 2008–2010 Survey of the Health of Wisconsin, a representative sample of Wisconsin adults aged 21–74 years. Participants completed questionnaires about their caregiving, sociodemographics, and HRQoL; 264 caregivers were identified. Staged generalized additive models assessed the associations among caregiving characteristics, caregiver strain, and HRQoL; survey weights were applied to account for the complex sampling design.

Results

More hours per week of care and greater duration of caregiving were associated with higher levels of strain. Greater caregiver strain was in turn associated with worse mental HRQoL. However, most caregiving characteristics were not directly associated with mental or physical HRQoL.

Conclusions

The findings suggest a chains-of-risk model in which caregiving may increase strain, which may in turn adversely influence mental HRQoL. Using this perspective to refine interventions may improve our ability to support caregivers on practice and policy levels.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by a training grant from the National Institute on Aging (F31 AG 044073, PI: K. Litzelman) and The Center for Demography of Health and Aging (CDHA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which supported the caregiving component of the SHOW interviews (PI: W. P. Witt). Funding for the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin was provided by the Wisconsin Partnership Program (233 PRJ 25DJ), National Institutes of Health’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (5UL 1RR025011), and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (1 RC2 HL101468). The authors would like to thank the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin administrative team and field staff, as well as the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin participants. We are also grateful to Dr. Marsha R. Mailick for her insightful feedback and guidance.

Conflicts of interest

The authors have no conflicts to report.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Kristin Litzelman, Halcyon G. Skinner, Ronald E. Gangnon, F. Javier Nieto, Kristen Malecki & Whitney P. Witt

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Ronald E. Gangnon

  3. Survey of the Health of Wisconsin, Middleton, WI, USA

    F. Javier Nieto & Kristen Malecki

  4. 9609 Medical Center Drive MSC 9761, 3E-620, Bethesda, MD, 20892-9761, USA

    Kristin Litzelman

  5. Truven Health Analytics, Durham, NC, USA

    Halcyon G. Skinner & Whitney P. Witt

  6. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 603 Warf Office Building, 610 Walnut St, Madison, WI, 53726, USA

    Ronald E. Gangnon

  7. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 707c Warf Office Building, 610 Walnut St, Madison, WI, 53726, USA

    F. Javier Nieto

  8. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 589 Warf Office Building, 610 Walnut St, Madison, WI, 53726, USA

    Kristen Malecki

Authors
  1. Kristin Litzelman
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  2. Halcyon G. Skinner
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  3. Ronald E. Gangnon
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  4. F. Javier Nieto
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  6. Whitney P. Witt
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Correspondence to Kristin Litzelman.

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Litzelman, K., Skinner, H.G., Gangnon, R.E. et al. The relationship among caregiving characteristics, caregiver strain, and health-related quality of life: evidence from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin. Qual Life Res 24, 1397–1406 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0874-6

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